Peach slicing machine



Feb. 3, 1942. J. ALBERTOLI 2,271,755

PEACH SLICING MACHINE Filed Oct. g5, 1940 INVENTOR. JOHN AL BEE 7'01.

ATTOk/VEY Patented Feb. 3, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE PEACH SLICING MACHINE John Albertoli, San Francisco, Calif.

Application October 25, 1940, Serial No. 362,728

4 Claims.

This invention relates to machines for slicing half peaches into a plurality of slices for canning purposes, and the object of the invention is to provide improvements in the construction of such machines whereby the position of the slicing blades may be more accurately adjusted and determined; the blades will not tend to become mis-aligned or wobbly on their mountings, and

a construction which provides for the quick assembling of any number of power blades depending on the number of slices it is desired to form of a peach half.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will app-ear in the following description and in the accompanying drawing.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is an end View of my improved peach slicing machine with a portion of the forward end plate and other parts broken away to reveal the mounting of the slicing knives, or blades.

Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the machine of Fig. 1 as seen along the line 2-2 thereof.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the central blade carrying unit of Fig. l and showing a portion of both end plates on which it is mounted Fig. 4 is an enlarged portion of one end plate showing the screw adjustable mounting of the blade unit thereon.

Before describing the'drawing in detail it may be said that the peach slicer is of the type wherein a series of circular revolving knives or blades are arranged in a converging manner so that their edges substantially all come to a meeting point, and through or past which converging edges half peaches or other half fruits are passed along on a traveling belt so as to be cut into a plurality of radial segments, depending on how many revolving circular blades are grouped together. In such machines the traveling belt which carries the peaches or other half fruits in a face down condition past the revolving blades, is 'just slightly impinged by the cutting edge of the blades so that the fruit sections will be completely separated and free from one another as the fruit goes along.

Such machines as above described are in common use in the canneries where fruit is packed and are particularly important in the slicing of peaches for canning. The present invention has to do with certain features of construction whereby each revolving blade is mounted in a separate or individual rigid frame, and these frames may be assembled in the desired number and clamped to end plates and between which end plates they are adjustable so as to provide for the proper converging of the cuttingblades against the traveling belt. By this means the mountingof eachblade may embrace definite bearing members and axlewhich insure its permanent revolution in the desired plane without tendency to Wobble, and its mounting is never affected by the adjustment of the unit as a whole. Other features of importance will appear as the description unfolds.

In the drawing, l is the base plate of the machine, 2 designates the duplicate end plates of the machine and which are preferably in the form of half disks and are secured to the base by any desired means but preferably as by bolts 3 passing through lugs 4 formed on the end plate so that the end plates are easily detachable from the base plate. The end plates are each provided with a half circular opening 5 of a width to permit easy passage of a conveying belt 6 upon which thehalf peaches or other half fruitare laid and conveyed into the machine.

In the particular machine illustrated there are shown five thin circular or disk knives or blades 1 converging together at the center line of the belt. Owing to the necessity of the Patent Oflice rules requiring double lines to show such a thin blade it is impossible to show them all converging to the actual belt surface as they do in practice. As far as the conveyor belt is concerned this is driven by means not shown and may include edge guiding strips to guide it in its travels, but which are not shown as they are well known and form no part of the present invention and would only serve to cloud the drawing.

The circular blades 1 are each carried in a separate rigid frame comprised of two outer long side bars 8 and two end members 9 integrally joining the side bars, thus forming a rigid rectangular frame of a length to clear the circular disk blade 1 which is positioned Within it on an axle l0 taking the form of ashoulder bolt secured at its ends to the outer sides of the frame 8 by means of. threaded nuts II. The shoulder bolt thus insures the precise spacing of the frame sides at that point. Rotatively mounted on the axle bolt is a hub l2 which is recessed at opposite ends and within which recesses are accurately fitted annular ball bearings I3, while at one end of the hub I2 is a flange I4 to which the blade 1 is secured as by countersunk screws l5 with nuts [6 at their inner ends.

By the mounting described each blade will be seen to be permanently mounted on a fixed axle and revolvable therearound on annular ball bearings spaced at opposite ends of the hub and due to the considerable spacing of these ball bearings the blades are free from any wobbling tendency. In order to drive each blade with power there is formed or secured to the hub a bevel gear I! and meshing with which is a bevel pinion |8. This pinion is mounted on a shaft l9 extending -within and parallel to the frame sides 8 and it is supported in two bearings 28 and 2| secured to the frame, and projects through a slotted opening 22 in one end plate so as to extend therefrom, and carries a sprocket 23 secured thereto as by the pin 24 or otherwise. It is obvious of course that the bearings 28 and 2| may be plain, oilless, ball, or any type of bearing desired.

The unit blade assembly so far described is best shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and in Figs. 1 and 2 it will be seen that each unit is provided with a curved guard or metal strip 25 which overlies the outer exposed half of the circular blade 1 and is secured at its ends as by the screws 26 to the ends of the frame. This curved guard is shown in section in Fig. 3 where it is also designated 25.

Means are provided for clamping opposite ends of each blade frame to the opposite end plates 2-2 and which means is shown more clearly in Fig. 4 which shows the clamping means on the end plate at the sprocket end of the machine but with the sprocket omitted and its shaft 9 shown in section, although it should be noted that the clamping means at both ends are alike. clamping means referred to includes a pair of cap screws 2'! screwed into threaded holes in the end members 5 of the unit frame and projecting freely through a radial slot 28 in the end plate and also through an outer clamp block 29 in contact with the outer surface of the end plate so that by tightening up the screws 21 the block 29 will be tightly forced againstthe outer side of the end plate 2 and thus clamp it firmly against the end wall 9 of the unit frame. This end block 23 is formed with a laterally projecting lug 30 and through which is threaded an adjusting screw 3!, and which screw passes freely through a hole in a fixed lug 32 projectingfrom the outer face of the end plate 2, and with the head 3| of the screw on top of the lug, all as shown in Fig. 4. By this construction it will be seen that when the screws 2'! are relaxed the unit blade carrier 8-9 would be free to rise and fall, or rather move radially, within the two end plates guided by the radial slots 28. However, by reason of the screw 3| being threaded into the lug 38 the entire weight of the unit frame or carrier and its blade '5 and driving gears and shaft are all suspended on screws 3| and putting them in tension, so that shanks of the cap screws 21 so that the converg- 1;

n points of the blades may be easily adjusted in relation to one another to all come together at the desired point, and after which the screws are all tightened up to permanently lock them in place.

To drive all the blades simultaneously I provide a chain 33 which contacts around the upper surface of the sprockets 23 and converges toward a common driving sprocket 36 mounted ona drive shaft 35 in turn supported in suitable hanger The iii)

bearings 36 below the base plate. To insure an I even tension on the chain I may provide one or more spring idler sprockets 31 mounted on movable or pivotal brackets 38 and normally urged against the chain as by a spring 39.

To prevent the sliced peaches from following the blades, I provide a series of stripping rods 40 adjacent opposite sides of each blade as indicated in Fig. 1, and which rods extend from one end plate 2 to the other and are preferably secured thereto as by nuts 4| or otherwise.

While my drawing shows the use of five units in Fig. 1, it is evident that one or more of the units may be removed as may be desired and that it will not affect any of the others nor the driving arrangement for the machine, and that therefore the end plates may be furnished with slots enough to mount the maximum desired number of blade units, and that the various canneries may easily change them to suit the particular fruit, or size fruit, or desired number of slices wanted, and that such change would only require a few moments of time and yet after the adjustments were made each blade would be rigid in its own mountings, unaffected by any of the others. Also in case of accidents to any blade such as the nicking of its edge by an extra hard fruit pit being inadvertently left in a peach half, it would only be necessary to stop the machine for a few moments to drop in another unit. Similarly, the blades are easily dismounted complete in their own unit for sharpening.

The various advantages enumerated above are of great importance in connection with the maintaining of cannery operations free from the costly shutdowns which commonly occur from equipment getting out of order and being dimcult to replace or rectify.

Having thus described my invention it will be manifest that various modifications and changes may be made within the spirit of the invention and within the scope of my appended claims.

I therefore claim:

1. In a power fruit slicing machine of the type having a plurality of revolvably supported disk blades converging toward one point for cutting halved fruit into segments, means for individually mounting the disk blades comprising a relatively long narrow open unit frame in which the disk blade is positioned to project through the same, an axle projecting through the disk blade and extending fixedly into opposite sides of the frame, a gear revolvably mounted on said axle and secured to said disk blade, a drive shaft supported by bearing means carried by one side only of and within the frame, and a pinion on said shaft meshing said gear, all whereby each blade in its frame mounting complete with shaft and gear and with driving pinion and drive shaft forms a unit assembly, and means for securing a plurality of said units in assembled relation.

2. In a power fruit slicing machine of the type having a plurality of revolvably supported disk blades converging toward one point for cutting halved fruit into segments, means for individually mounting the disk blades comprising a relatively long narrow open unit frame in which the disk blade is positioned to project through the same, an axle projecting through the disk blade and extending into opposite sides of the frame, a gear mounted on said axle and secured to revolve as a unit with said disk blade, a drive shaft supported by bearing means carried by the frame, and a pinion on said shaft meshing said gear, all whereby each blade in its frame mounting and with driving gears forms a unit assembly, and means for securing a plurality of said units in assembled relation with drive shafts all projecting at one end of the machine, a sprocket on each drive shaft, and a driving strand of chain engaging over each sprocket in succession, and means for driving said chain.

3. In a power driven fruit slicing machine of the type having a plurality of revolvably supported disk blades converging toward one point for cutting halved fruit into segments, the improvement which comprises providing a separate unit frame mounting and driving elements for each disk blade, a pair of spaced confrontingly arranged end plates on the machine, and means adjustably securing said unit frames each to said end plates, said unit frames being of elongated form to each embrace opposite sides of and extend at its opposite ends around the opposite edges of a disk blade, and the frame secured at its said opposite ends to said end plates respectively, the means securing the unit frames to the end plates compn'sing a clamping block positioned against the outer side of the end plate at the end of the frame and bolt means passing through the block and end plate into the unit frame. 1

4. In a power driven fruit slicing machine of the type having a plurality of revolvably supported disk blades converging toward one point for cutting halved fruit into segments, the improvement which comprises providing a separate unit frame mounting for each disk blade, a pair of spaced confronti-rigly arranged end plates on the machine, and means adjustably securing said unit frames to said end plates, said unit frames being of elongated form to each embrace opposite sides of a disk blade, and the frame secured at opposite ends to said end plates, the means securing the unit frames to the end plates comprising a clamping block against the outer side of the end plate at the end of the frame, and bolt means passing through the block and end plate into the unit frame, and a threaded rod carried by the end plate supporting the weight of said frame and providing for adjustment of the same when said bolt means is released, said end plate having bolt passing openings in it free enough to permit such adjustment.

JOHN ALBERTOLI. 

